#like seeing how past politics grew to become our current political landscape

[fraseris]

one thing about me is that im obsessed with 20th century politics and counterculture movements

[chinuppoppins]

Cloak and Dagger AU: Game of Thrones  The Lioness and The Wolf Prologue

Balls at Winterfell were truly the most boring event Tandy had been forced to go to. The landscape was dull, the days frigid and the nights were the darkest of dark. The north and the northerners were truly sullen, superstitious beings. She heard tales of the horrors beyond the wall, White Walkers that had been defeated years before her time. Tandy grew off of those stories, how the last two Targaryens rode their dragons, how the Night King was slain. She knew how after the fact, there was peace. The Mad Queen, the last Lannister to claim the Iron Throne had fallen and since then, no other Lannister sat on the throne. That however was three hundred years ago and peace? Well that was quite a fragile thing.

Peace was the reason why Tandy was currently in Winterfell, her father had gone mad with greed and during a Baratheon Wedding, he played The Rains of Castamere and attempted to kill everyone in the room. However he was stopped and with him being killed on the spot and her mother stripped of her title, she was left here as a Ward of Winterfell. Her father’s madness was the reason why her engagement with Liam Greyjoy was called off and she was to be left with nothing. Her Uncle would inherit The Rock and she would be left to rot in the icy winds of the north.

“Not joining in the festivities I see?”

Tandy turned and looked upon Tyrone Stark, the heir to Winterfell, the Future King in the North and the most noble man she had ever set eyes on. He was kind to his people, sweet to the small children and righteous, everything that she wasn’t. She took in his appearance, sword on his hip, black cloak to keep him warm and the direwolf emblem on his armor.

“Your mother rather me not to be there, people are still healing from my father’s madness and seeing me, well that would be a slap in the face.” She laughs. “And besides, I’m pretty sure that everyone in that hall hates me. These Stark colors aren’t going to keep me safe.”

“You’d rather be coated in gold, though you’re not allowed to step foot out of Winterfell. I’ll send a Raven in the morning and see to it that your things are sent here. Though I do think that the Stark Colors suit you. You’re not a prisoner here, Tandy.”

A bubble of a sad laugh escapes her lips as she looks upon the night sky. “I was a prisoner as soon as my father stupidly rebelled.” She scoffs. “For what? A throne that we were never meant to own. He wanted to avenge something that happened 300 years ago and his vengeance is now down in the ground with him.”

Tyrone now stands beside her. “Well, at least you don’t have to marry Liam Greyjoy now, I saw the look on your face at tourneys when he spoke to you, my favorite was when he declared he would win and claim you as his queen of love and beauty.”

“And he didn’t win, fell flat on his ass from that Baratheon boy.” Tandy laughs and then shakes her head. “He was all talk, A good man, but still all talk.”

“Yes and now your stuck to marry me, I’ve got to saw, Winterfell is better than the Iron Island, My Lady.” Tyrone tells her with a smile.

Tandy shared his smile even though she understood that this arrangement would anger the Northmen and women. Although this arrangement was made by all the High Houses, it was the King of the North Otis Stark that took her and promised her to his son. “The girl has good in her, she doesn’t have her father’s malice and I have a son her age. We’ll wed the two and she’ll spend out the rest of her days in Winterfell. She has a chance to become something good and she has noble blood. Her engagement to the Greyjoy boy is null, she will become the Queen of The North.” Tandy was right outside of the throne room when she heard Otis swear to the King and Queen and all the High Ladies and Lords.

Though she also knew how this news effected Tyrone. She watched the look on his face when his father presented her to him and she remembers the harsh whispers when she was taken from the main hall. The Queen was furious and Tyrone rushed out, brushing past her without even looking at her. She found him later holding another woman in his arms in the godswood, apologizing over and over to her and telling her that it was his duty.

“Your Grace,” She says after a moment, gaining his attention again. “I understand why you agreed to marrying me, it is a political alliance after all, correct?” She sighs, looking down at her hands. “Men in your situation sometimes take mistresses and I understand that you have love for the girl that prays in the Godswood. So while are marriage is to keep my house in line, I will understand if you would take her as a lover after we marry.”

Tyrone seemed taken back at her suggestion, he blinked, looked out at the snowy horizon and then shook his head. “Evitia and I ended our courtship.” He told her. “It is my duty to marry you to prevent a war and I’ve accepted that. Now it’s your duty to charm those hard sons of bitches in the Great Hall. My father is going to announce our engagement, so-” He offers her is arm. “If you will, My Lady.”

Tandy studies him for a moment and then takes his arm. They walk together to the doors of the great hall and Tandy studies the carved direwolf heads, no longer was her life full of the proud lion. She was going to become a she wolf now. The two men on either side of the doors sent a scowl her way before opening them. The hall grew silent as Tyrone and Tandy marched by the many houses of the North who all starred as she walked by on the arm of the future King in the North.

Otis stood from his chair. “Great Lords and Ladies of the North.” His voice echoes through the quite hall. “All our great ancestors wanted was peace among our houses. After the War of the Great Queens, each house swore fealty to the King and Queen in the South and the Queen and King in the North. With that oath, came the promise of peace and that promise was almost broken when Nathan Lannister played The Rains. Nathan was punished, however, House Stark doesn’t go back on a promise, or a betrothal. So, may I present to you, your future Queen in the North, Tandy Lannister.”

Suddenly the hall is ablaze with angry shouting, chairs being scrapped across the stone floor as Northern Lords and Ladies argue with their king, telling him an outside queen will never be accepted, that she should be hung, thrown behind bars to rot or sold to a brothel. However, it is Tyrone that speaks up. “Do all of you remember the stories you were told as children. About how when Daenerys Targaryen came to Winterfell on horseback, how she was an outsider and how our ancestors despised her for what her father did. Do you remember how she fought for the North, almost died for the North and when she took the crown, she split it in half. Named the North to be ruled by a Northern, formed an unbreakable alliance? She wasn’t from the North, yet they learned and accepted her, respected her. So like Daenerys, do not go and blame a daughter for the sins of her father. I’ve accepted this alliance, this marriage and you will all learn to accept it too.”

That night Tandy sits by Tyrone’s side at the head table and studied every man and woman in the room, she was a lioness, she was prideful and she knew she could earn these people’s respect, she would just have to figure out the right way to do so.

[seeroftodayandtomorrow]

A Musical Affair

Summary:  Blaine’s life has been shaped by scandal. Now his livelihood and, it sometimes seems, his sanity depend on him being as inconspicuous as possible. But a group of unusual friends cause his resolve to totter, and a beautiful singer might shatter it completely. Historical AU

Chapter 6 

Read on AO3

Blaine approached his former home slowly, cautiously, as he would a wild animal. Even from the outside, it didn’t look the same anymore: now that he didn’t live here, didn’t belong here anymore, the mansion looked more imposing, more forbidding. Like however he was dressed, whoever he was, it would never be good enough.

It was not to be helped, though. His curiosity was simply too insistent: he had to know why Sebastian had asked to see him. What, after that overwhelmingly awkward and embarrassing first meeting, they could possibly have to say to each other. He was not without trepidations—he had not forgotten how he had felt after that first meeting, and as little as he knew Sebastian, he would not put it past him to invite him just to mock him.

When the butler opened the door, Blaine remembered Kurt’s words about how Rachel’s butler would look at him—like something the cat had dragged in. It seemed to be a look that every butler had for every visitor.

“Yes?” the butler asked, only it was longer, more a “yeees?”, accompanied by a look down the butler’s long nose that seemed to ask, “What would someone like you want here?”

“My name is Blaine Anderson,” Blaine said, pulling himself together. After all, he had dealt with dozens of butlers, albeit in a position that was very different from the one he was in now.

“His lordship awaits me.”

He was led into a parlor and told to wait. It was the same parlor his mother had used to receive visitors in, but her carefully chosen furniture had been replaced. Blaine wasn’t sure he liked the new décor. Sebastian didn’t have bad taste, but the new pieces were rather ostentatious and very obviously expensive. Besides, he had liked the room the way it was before.

The place of honor above the fireplace, where as long as he could think his father’s portrait had hung, where, he had been told, every current Earl’s portrait had hung since his great-grandfather had bought the place, was instead occupied by a tasteful landscape. Blaine supposed it was possible that his father’s portrait was upstairs in the gallery and Sebastian’s was still in commission, but somehow, he doubted it. He had a feeling the new Earl didn’t give much for tradition.

He didn’t have long to view his surroundings, as after only a few minutes, Sebastian entered the room.

“I’m very happy you’re here,” the young Earl said after they made their bows.

He gestured at the elegant settee and himself sat down in a fauteuil before the fireplace. “I’ll ring for tea, shall I?”

Blaine smiled and agreed, thinking to himself that there was nothing to see of the over-confident, even arrogant man he had met at the ball. Here, now, Sebastian came across as nervous, insecure and not quite at home in his own house. He also did seem at a loss at what to say just as much as Blaine.

They were almost silent except for a few polite remarks about the weather, until the tea came. Even then, Sebastian took his time stirring sugar into his tea, then taking a sip before he finally spoke.

“I’m very glad you came,” he then repeated. “I’ve been…regretting the way our first meeting went. And I’m sure that you’ll agree with me when I say that…the way this meeting went would best be forgotten.” He smiled, and Blaine couldn’t help but smile as well. In that, at least, Sebastian was right.

“But…I’ve been thinking, and I would like to get to know you. As my brother, not…you know, what I proposed earlier, of course.”

“I would like that too,” Blaine said softly. “My only brother died when I was very young, and I’ve always wanted siblings.”

“Well, no chance of that with a father like this, really. I can’t imagine any woman wanting to bed him more than once, for all his wealth and status.”

Blaine gave out a surprised laugh. It was what he had always not quite allowed himself to think, and he knew it was mostly true: an heir and a spare, and then, to his mother’s relief and satisfaction,  his father had sought his pleasures elsewhere.

“So we do have that in common,” he said softly. “We do not like the man who sired us.”

“No,” Sebastian said vehemently. “If…you want to hear it, I had wanted to tell you about him. And us. It might—not excuse, but explain—my initial coldness towards you.”

“I’ll listen,” Blaine promised. He was intrigued. This Sebastian was a whole other person than the one he had so briefly met at the ball.

“The Earl married my mother when she was very young. He was, I understand, a man of strong appetites who wasn’t used to accepting no for an answer, and she was very religious and had grown up without much contact to men. So he persuaded her to elope with him to get what he wanted, but he must have planned to leave her from the beginning, for the wedding was in secret, without guests or any witnesses but the priest, whom he bribed to burn the marriage certificate. My mother was very much in love with him, so she let him decide everything how he wanted, just so he would marry her.”

Blaine nodded. He had wondered how such a clandestine marriage had been possible, but he could imagine a naïve young girl under the spell of a sophisticated older man, who was an Earl on top of that. Even if that Earl was his father.

“He took a house in the country for them,” Sebastian continued, “far away from anyone they knew, saying it was their honeymoon, and that later they would return to the city and he would introduce her to his family. But after a few weeks, he—left. And didn’t come back.”

“I’m so sorry,” Blaine said. It seemed like the right thing to do, even though he had had no part in his father’s actions and no words could atone for them. “What did she do?”

Sebastian laughed bitterly. “What could she do? By then she was expecting, and she was still so in love with him that she waited for him far too long, keeping the house much longer than she could afford. Then she went back to her parents. But she couldn’t prove she was wed, so they disowned her. Finally she went to live with her sister and her family. This is where I grew up. But we were….kept as little more than servants, and were always reminded we were dependent on their charity. They did not let me go to school—my mother taught me—and after my mother died last year, they made it very clear I was not welcome there anymore.”

Blaine was silent. He had noticed that Sebastian did not disclose how he had survived in the time between his mother’s death and his inheritance. He would not ask. He could imagine it had been hard, and would be hard to tell.

“So—when I met you, the first thing I felt was resentment. I felt that you had had the upbringing that should have been mine, and been prepared for the title that I am now bearing. I’m sorry. I can imagine that with a father like that, your childhood cannot have been easy.”

“He was mostly away,” Blaine said with a little smile, “but—no, it wasn’t.”

For a while, they were silent. Blaine took one of the delicate little sandwiches offered and noticed that Sebastian had apparently kept their cook. He was glad and promised himself to visit the kitchen on his way out. But the silence lasted longer than expected, and after a while, he made himself ask.

“My lord, what do you want? Why did you ask me to come?”

“First of all, I’d like you to call me Sebastian. I…do enjoy being an Earl, but you are my brother, and if possible, I’d like us to be friends. I…need your help.”

Blaine was taken aback. If he was honest, he had expected some kind of motive in Sebastian’s surprising invitation, maybe a bribe or even a threat in order to keep him silent about what had happened at the ball. Sebastian’s tale of how he grew up had made him change his mind, but he had not expected him to ask for help.

“I was not brought up to be an Earl. I don’t know anything about…anything, really. I don’t know about etiquette, or managing an estate, or even how to properly receive guests. I’ve managed so far by coming across as cocky and arrogant and being above these things, but I don’t think it will take long for people to realize that it’s a front.”

“Wait, you’re not cocky and arrogant?” Blaine teased. He wasn’t sure if he could take the liberty to do that, but he wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time with Sebastian if he couldn’t. In a way, this was a test.

But Sebastian laughed. “Oh no, I am. I’m afraid that won’t change. But I’d like to know the rules of society before I decide I’m above them.”

He grew serious again. “I’d like you to teach me, if you would. I’m willing to pay, or…whatever you want, really. If you’d like to move back here, for example—there are rooms enough.”

Blaine went home contemplating Sebastian’s amazingly generous offer. It was tempting to escape his grandmother’s watchful eyes by moving in with Sebastian—and they couldn’t even say anything against it. He’d be officially employed as his lordship’s private secretary, a position which he was rather over-educated for, but which was still honorable. A lot of his problems would be solved—he’d have employment with someone who could perhaps become a friend, if not a brother, he’d be out from under his grandmother’s nose, and he’d have the liberty to more often see Kurt.

But—would he really? He’d be an employee in the house that once was to be his. He might get his old bedroom, but would know Sebastian occupied the master suite. He did not, as such, begrudge Sebastian the title and the wealth, not after the life he had led and the stipulations Blaine knew came with both. He didn’t want that life back. Sebastian was welcome to it.

But to be a guest—a servant of sorts—in the house that had once been his home, was a little too much.

There was another reason he would probably decline the offer, and Blaine was caught between a smile and a wince when he thought that this reason had a lot to do with Kurt.

He hadn’t forgotten Kurt’s reaction at the thought of taking money from anyone, nor his own resolution to become independent from his grandmother. And was taking money from Sebastian really so different than taking money from Grandmama? Especially since he would only nominally be a secretary, really performing a service he would gladly do just for friendship’s sake, and maybe the occasional taste of his former cook’s excellent cooking.

He’d never stand on his own feet if he kept taking money from his relations, be it grandmother or brother.

So he would write those letters, using his connections to get a positions in which then, hopefully, he could prove himself, prove that he was something more than a spoiled Earl’s son.

He wanted to be as independent-minded as Kurt. He wanted to be—God help him—someone Kurt could be proud of. And if, in the process, he could be someone he could be proud of himself—well, that would be a nice change.

[tsukiprotranslations]

[Translation] Machine Elements - Cast Presentation: ROCK DOWN

ROCK DOWN!! Y’all, there’s a cute tidbit about Sho in this part of the pamphlet~! 

※ Please don’t re-post and re-translate this interview under any circumstances. If you want to translate it to your native language, I can provide the kanji I transcribed from the scans ^^

Under the cut, enjoy~!

ONODA SHO

“Hey, Haruto. The world really is overflowing with a lot of beautiful things, isn’t it?”

PROFILE:

NAME: Onoda Sho

GUILD: ROCK DOWN (※ Guildmaster)

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ He’s the Guildmaster for ROCK DOWN, a guild that continuously seeks beauty. He is the second prince of a certain country and while he has denounced his claim to the throne, he possesses a certain elegance and dignity fitting for a royal.

☐ Due to a belief that it can cure his illness, he was raised as a girl until a certain age to help his frail body. As a result, he was called [The White Flower Princess]. Even now, there are people in the kingdom who call him that.

☐ The entire guild is good at using the properties of the earth and is in possession of a few unique technologies, some particular in the cultivation of plant life. As a result, the public organizations, museums, art museums, and such of [Rikugo] have entrusted them with the landscaping of places. In turn, their connection to the Central Political Administration grew stronger.

COMMENT:

Hello? I’m ROCK DOWN’s Onoda Sho.

Everyone’s visuals have been released, huh? It’s rare for me to wear such a fantasy costume that I excitedly accepted mine. Each of our costumes have their own unique characteristics and sometimes, it makes you wonder what a certain thing is used for, doesn’t it? Things like, “I wonder how this is used?” come to mind (laughs). I want to portray this beautiful costume on stage as the leader of ROCK DOWN, a guild that shows beautiful aesthetics. Please look forward to it.

KUJIKAWA HARUTO

“Being moved and all is okay but please, look properly at where you’re walking.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Kujikawa Haruto

GUILD: ROCK DOWN

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ He’s a younger servant who came along with Sho after the latter denounced his right to the throne to become a Craftsman. Ten years after: He and Sho got together and became Craftsmen so they established the guild as commemoration.

☐ Just like Sho, he’s skilled with using the element of the earth. They centered their activities around its cultivation and soon after, the members of their guild continued to increase. Presently, not only is he known as a skilled Craftsman in Rikugo but, he seems to be recognized as a world-class Craftsman as well.

☐ He tends to be misunderstood because of his stern look and unique energy but he is actually friendly despite the looks. It seems like he invites Reiji, a member a bit older than him, to go out to eat by saying, “I’m hungry,” and tends to act spoiled around him.

☐ He loves animals. It seems like he goes to the forest once a week where he tends to take naps with wild animals under a large tree.

COMMENT:

I’m sure that there are a lot of people meeting me for the first time so, it’s nice to meet you. I’m ROCK DOWN’s Kujikawa Haruto.

My nickname is [Warrior]. That’s why, true to my nickname, I will work hard and earnestly at rehearsals without making any excuses. Generally speaking, I have very little experience with stage plays. No, I think it would be more accurate to say that I have zero experience. However, everyone has something they’re trying for the first time… I think that this play will be a good memory for me as well. I will give it everything that I’ve got. Let’s meet each other again in the theater, okay?

AMAHA REIJI

“Welp, I thought that he’d pretty much get bored so I went with him.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Amaha Reiji

GUILD: ROCK DOWN

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ ROCK DOWN’s most expressive and talkative member. He’s a skilled Craftsman who can excellently control the contradictory elements of earth. Since he is confident in his skills, there are a lot of times when he takes on a large amount of requests from boastful (and sometimes, women) customers.

☐ Ayumu is his childhood friend as their families are close. In the past, there was an incident where he teased Ayumu for having such a frail body that Ayumu pushed himself so hard that he almost died. It became a huge trauma for him that he vowed to watch over Ayumu but… Ayumu doesn’t like it and they always end up fighting.

☐ His base might be in Rikugo but, he decided to come with Ayumu on his journey of unraveling the world’s mysteries. However, while in the middle of their journey, they met and picked up Gaku and Ruka, a pair of mysterious traveling [Performer Craftsmen].

☐ Though he might have his perverse sides, there’s no doubt that he’s a kind man who likes taking care of people.

COMMENT:

Good afternoon, I’m ROCK DOWN’s Amaha Reiji.

We’re in such a fantastical costume, huh? I go on a journey together with Ayumu. This sort of pairing has become a classic now, hasn’t it~? But actually, this time around we have a new kind of parner. Mechanical birds called [Kazatori]! We bring them along with us. These [Kazatori] are actually supposed to move on stage but, it’s a bit difficult saying our lines while maneuvering them at the same time (bitter smile). I train hard every day together with Ayumu and SOARA, the original owners of the [Kazatori] without much complaints (laughs). We wish to be able to perfect it and show everyone soon!

TACHIBANA AYUMU

“Who built these ruins…? What lies beyond the sky…? I got curious about these mysteries of the world and so I went on a journey.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Tachibana Ayumu

GUILD: ROCK DOWN

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ Affiliated to ROCK DOWN, he’s a young man with strong intellect and a curious mind. Ever since the day he read about the world’s mysteries in a book at the library, he has made it his life’s goal to unravel them.

☐ He and his parents were originally members of the guild SOARA and were dispatched to go to Rikugo. It seems like he and Reiji have recently started using the [Kazatori] that their parents gave them.

☐ After getting used to living in Rikugo, he leaves on a journey to find the famous floating ruins that he read about in a certain book. Just as he was about to begin his journey, there was an incident where Growth made certain ruins surface. Furthermore, a mysterious guild called Six Gravity came and treated the floating ruins familiarly as if it were theirs.

☐ Despite his cool exterior, he actually has a weakness for sweets (specially Japanese sweets). While he was traveling, he enjoyed indulging in sweets from different places under the guise of ‘nutrition procurement’.

COMMENT:

I’m ROCK DOWN’s Tachibana Ayumu. 

This being a joint stage means that all of TsukiPro’s units are participating. Us ROCK DOWN have only just debuted as a unit, not counting our individual activities. Still, we have no plans of using to the other units when it comes to teamwork. But… Seeing how they shine together on stage makes me realize there are a lot of walls to overcome. We have quite a ways to go but I’ll do my best so that we’ll leave our mark in history.

OGURO GAKU

“Well, whether it ends safely is… it’s all up to you.”

PROFILE:

NAME: Oguro Gaku

GUILD: ROCK DOWN

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ A (self-proclaimed) [Performer Craftsman] that Reiji and Ayumu picked up on their journey. He and Ruka make money by doing magic shows that showcase unique machinery and technologies that they developed themselves. His specialty is knife-throwing and sword-dancing.

☐ He was actually born in a rural area at the western end of the continent. He seemed to be living a self-sufficient life where it was normal for both men and women to be out working on the field. He is very good at cooking, too.

☐ He happened to be near the site where Growth made some ruins surface that he bore witness to an incident where some of his working tools and machinery were destroyed after they were surrounded by a weird pulse that emanated from the ruins. It seems like he met Reiji on his way to the Art City of Rikugo to get his tools fixed.

COMMENT:

Good afternoon~! I’m Oguro Gaku, one of the Performer Craftsmen. I think there are a lot who are meeting me for the first time so please, feel free to call me [Gaku] or [Gakkun] or whatever you like to make it easier to remember. My special skill today is, well, to put it simply, knife-throwing. It is of course, dangerous to actually do that on stage so, I’ll do my best to make it as realistic as possible. Now then, it’s the beginning of an adventure!

NADUMI RUKA

“Now, now, come one, come all~! The world’s most mysterious show is about to start~!”

PROFILE:

NAME: Nadumi Ruka

GUILD: ROCK DOWN

BASE: Art City [Rikugo]

☐ One of the two (self-proclaimed) [Performer Craftsmen]. Together with Gaku, they make money by doing magic shows that showcase unique machinery and technologies that they developed themselves. His specialty is a fantastic light show that makes use of magic and light.

☐ He was born in the Downtown area of the Industrial City of Touda. It seems like he had grown up and gotten used to being there in a blink of an eye. He was an orphan but luckily, a merchant who loves taking care of people took him in and soon, he began his travels around the world with the merchant.

☐ Since he has been exposed to a lot of different places and cultures since he was young, he has a wide range of knowledge and is very sophisticated. He’s also called Gaku’s “Walking Guidebook”.

☐ He met his current [Performer Craftsman] partner Gaku at a town near Procellarum’s base, the White Demon Stone『Byakko』. They met each other by coincidence as they shared a seat during a meal but now, they’re irreplaceable partners for each other.

COMMENT:  

If it’s a play then… it’s definitely me! This is my home territory! And so, I’m Nadumi Ruka who normally appears in stage plays! To the people reading the [KisoSekai] pamphlet, hello~!

My highlights for this play are: 1.) My cool and cute costume, 2.) My excellent acting, 3.) My perfect dancing, maybe? I guess you can call it perfect… I’m just joking (laughs). Please cheer on everyone in the cast! I think you’ll get to find your oshi fave after that! I’ll have to do my best so I can be included, huh?! Now then~ I’ll get fired up today, too!

※ Please don’t re-post the English translations without permission.

If you enjoyed this, please consider buying me a ko-fi here to support my work if you want. (o^▽^o)Thank you!!

[protectorsofthewood]

Abby and Wendy - Episode 36

AN UNUSUAL MEETING

Lluvia slowly steered the canoe toward the right bank. A wide view of Evansville opened up before their eyes. The river seemed to grow and spread out, creating space for many docks lining the shoreline. The tall buildings were all on the left side. On the right-hand side a long finger of parkland extended along the shoreline all the way from Half Moon. The Evansville College of Arts and Sciences was nestled among tall trees like a town of mostly low buildings. Beyond the college, Riverside Boulevard ran all the way to River City.       

Docks owned by the Parks Department and the College clustered together, creating a marina of boats, all quite small by ocean standards. The depth of the river was only about 5 to 8 feet, and varied radically with rainfall and the tide. No large yachts or ferryboats could safely navigate the river until the Maywood River joined the Half Moon a few miles downstream. At that point the river became wider, deeper, and crowded in a more urban landscape, climaxing at the great metropolis of River City.

Lluvia maneuvered the canoe along crowded docks to a separate, spacious area owned by the college. They tied the boat to cleats in the wooden platform and a young man in a college tee shirt gave them a hand up. Lluvia told him their business and departure time Sunday morning. He wanted student identification, and for a moment they were stuck, unsure what to do. 

Then they heard Abby’s name called, and Sara came rushing up the dock. She was obviously nervous and impatient. “Where have you been?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Phoebe answered. “An emergency, and my phone is gone. None of us have a phone. I’ll tell you more later.”

“Hi Bill,” Sara greeted the dock attendant. “They’re all with me, meeting in the energy building with Professor Richardson. He’ll approve it.”

“We picked up a stray boat,” Lluvia said. “It was floating free a mile upriver. Can you look for an owner?”

In a moment the three visitors and Sara were hurrying across a wide pathway onto the college campus. Old buildings, generally only two stories, were spread out among trees and lawns, and connected by flagstone paths. Abby had never seen anything like it. Wisteria grew up old stonewalls, and discreet signs were posted to guide visitors. The scene was calm and lovely in the early evening shadows. But Sara led them at a furious pace. Phoebe lagged behind, pulling her right leg stiffly forward.

Abby checked her timer. “Hey Sara,” she called. “It’s only 6:30.”

“We’ve reserved the private meeting room starting at six. Ricardo Richardson and a grad student and Freddy Baez are there already. We’ve made a dinner reservation for seven o’clock. This is a big deal. And we’re running out of time.” She’s the organizer, the mover and shaker,Abby told herself. Just follow along.

They practically ran through a maze of buildings where students walked in and out of dormitories and gathered in groups on the lawn. Cars full of arriving students and their luggage jammed the courtyard. Finally, Sara led the group to a modern one-story building with a picture window, glass doors, and wings built out from both sides. A limestone porch with benches and potted gardenias surrounded the main entrance. An elegant bronze sign read, ‘Energy in the Age of Climate Change’.

Groups on the benches said hello to Sara and stared as they hurried by, practically running down a carpeted hallway to wooden double doors. A quiet living room spread out before them. Lamps on poles, couches and easy chairs, bookshelves, paintings, and a sideboard of refreshments were scattered around a wide area. Three men stood to greet them.

Sara took charge. “Professor Richardson, Evansville Record editor Freddy Baez, and assistant professor Henry Tims, this is Abby, Phoebe, and…” Sara waited for the name.

“Lluvia,” Abby told them. They shook hands.

“Call me Ricardo, please. We’re here to talk as equals. Can I get you some coffee, wine, tea, club soda?” The visitors asked for coffee, and Ricardo served them himself. 

Freddy showed them to a long couch with a coffee table, and looked at his watch. “Can we delay dinner half an hour at least?” he asked Ricardo. “We need the time.”

“Henry, see if they can give us until 7:30. Tell them we apologize, but it’s important.”

Ricardo Richardson, the host and head of the department, wore a dark tailored suit and a pale blue tie. He was tall and lean, in his forties, brown skinned, with black hair cut very short. A gold ring with a small blue stone glowed on his right ring finger. Freddy Baez did not seem to be concerned about his appearance. He looked just the same to Abby as he had appeared in Reverend Tuck’s office: balding, in his fifties, needing a haircut around the ears, a bit overweight, wearing a shabby pale suit with no tie. He sipped his wine and glanced around impatiently.

Henry Tims looked maybe 25 or 26 years old, very young for an assistant professor. He was short and light skinned, with wispy blond hair falling over his forehead, and a vulnerable baby face free of wrinkles. His jeans and pinstriped shirt were clean and ironed, giving him a bit of formality. 

“Yes, right away,” he said, and hurried out the door.

Abby and Phoebe were struggling to keep their eyes off the blue stone in Ricardo’s ring. It’s dreamstone, its dreamstone!Their thoughts were buzzing, and they met each other’s eyes with a look of elated recognition. Here’s someone on our side, they thought. Abby glanced at Lluvia and noticed her wide-eyed look. She knows.

Sara retreated to a corner of the room and made a quick phone call. She wore her usual uniform: STAFF tee shirt, jeans, and wide red headband. “Amy will be here in a minute,” she told them.

“Ah! Excellent.” Ricardo gave a sigh of relief. “Let me give all of you a chance to drink your coffee and relax.” He spoke slowly and gently, with the hint of a Spanish accent. “I want you to know how grateful we are to see you here on our home turf. It’s a tremendous favor. I know you’ve overcome obstacles to be here… you folks are under a microscope these days. But now we have a chance to put our minds together in hopes of a better future. This is a moment blessed by fate.”

Henry returned, nodded to Ricardo, and pulled up a chair.

“We’re just getting started,” his professor told him. He was silent for a minute as the young women drank coffee.

Well, well…thought Abby. Quite an introduction. She was determined to play her role with all the concentration at her command, and bring in Phoebe and Lluvia to offer all those things that she could not.

The door suddenly opened and Amy Zhi walked into the room. Sara hugged her, and introduced her to Lluvia and Phoebe. Amy waved to all and sat in an upholstered armchair to the side of the couch. Henry hurried to get her a cup of coffee. 

The professor met everyone’s eyes and began: “I think we’ve all done a good job of arranging this off-the-record meeting, and I think we can count on each other’s confidentiality.”

They nodded.

“Please bear with me while I give a brief description of our situation. We’ll be discussing renewable energy developments that are still in an early, fragile stage, but are becoming too prominent to ignore. As you know, tomorrow the Evansville Board of Trustees will be responding to our student/faculty declaration of climate change commitments. I realize that this document is technically open to change and negotiation. But most of us, including the trustees, are aware that we are drawing a red line, a firm position that we intend to implement with all the influence we can find.” 

He paused and drank from a glass of wine. “Okay, now here’s some news. We’ve obtained through the grapevine a summary of the trustees’ response. They will point out that not only our college, but also our city and state, are nowhere near ready to achieve %100 renewable energy. Therefore they – the trustees – will not promise to withdraw all fossil fuel related investments. They will say we are decades, thirty years at a minimum, from banishing fossil fuels from our economy. Therefore, they must continue to invest in enterprises that are currently essential to the welfare of our population, such as fossil fuel heat, transportation, electricity, fertilizer, plastic, and so on. We know that this argument is shared by many of the powers that be in our world, and could have merit, except that over the past thirty years they have done nothing except continue business as usual. And the business interests that the trustees represent have no wish to change, and are ignoring the perilous consequences of delay.”      

“Hurry it along, Ricardo!” interrupted Freddy Baez. “We’re from the news business, we’re used to rushing. And in twenty minutes we’re supposed to be eating dinner.”

“I understand, Freddy. But tonight, I don’t care if all the food is overcooked or stone cold. I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. Everyone will get a chance to say their piece.”

He took another swallow of wine. “In maybe ten years, with supporting policies like an escalating carbon taxes, regulations, and investments into solar and wind projects, electricity could be just about 90% renewable. But as we know all too well, our state and nation and most of the globe, do not have the political will to achieve anything drastic at the moment. We don’t have the batteries yet to store enough energy to get through days with no wind and winters with little sun. Without the invention of better batteries, generators will need to continue using natural gas at least part of the time. We don’t have the grid, the heating and cooking equipment, the cars and jet fuel and household appliances to move to 100% renewable, even with a carbon tax and enormous subsidies. And for all those places off the grid the situation is hopeless. Propane tanks populate the countryside like mushrooms. And world-wide, that adds up to an insurmountable problem…except for one thing. The problems look different if you include biogas.

Ricardo looked around the room. “That’s what we need to discuss tonight. We know that all organic material can produce biogas, mostly methane. We know that landfilled organic material gives off methane into the atmosphere where it becomes a greenhouse gas. We know that landfilling organic material is expensive. We know that biogas is much more environmentally friendly than burning wood and related materials. We know waste organic material can be collected from a village or a city or a farm. We know the production of biogas can be a local enterprise or a colossal industry. We know that fracking can be banned as soon as we have better batteries for electrical storage and biogas for furnaces, stoves, and generators. Millions of families already use it all over the world. And tonight, we need to talk about the little-known fact that biogas is used by thousands of households right here in the Half Moon Valley. How did this happen, given the political and business support for fossil fuels? Why can’t we study and discuss it?”

The participants looked at each other, but no one answered. Ricardo waited, and then went on: “We’ve discovered that one of our trustees, Herbert Irving, is alarmed that his Valley Fuels distribution network is losing customers. He’s already investigating the production of biogas by our Parks Department. We know he will convince the governor and his allies to close down that operation unless they meet very strong resistance. We know that Rivergate is already 100% renewable, and Half Moon maybe 50% renewable, and Middletown is rapidly getting into the act. Why can’t we replicate this process? Why can’t we argue that with intelligent biogas production – by intelligent, I mean refusing to grow crops for biofuels on land suitable for food crops, refusing to cut down forests… in other words, producing biogas only from waste, organic garbage, wood that is already being chipped by the Parks Department as a matter of ordinary maintenance, grasses grown on land with soil too poor for human food… Why can’t we study, publicize, and argue for intelligent biogas production?”

He looked at his watch. “Thank you for your patience. The ball is in your court.”

“We’ve got a problem among the students,” Sara replied. “They’re all fired up about Abby’s interview, the mysteries surrounding Middletown, the gender and spiritual issues… but… it seems that they don’t understand biogas very well. It’s not clean and pure like solar and wind. It burns and gives off carbon dioxide, just like fracked gas.”

“Mmmm…” Ricardo smiled. “Tell them the squirrels and the dogs and humans give off carbon dioxide. The tree that falls in the forest and turns into compost gives off carbon dioxide. Cow manure gives off carbon dioxide. But the fracked gas didn’t have to give off itscarbon dioxide. It’s been safely underground for millions of years, and could have stayed there, if we didn’t mine it and burn it. We’re adding carbon to the life cycle, carbon that has been sequestered for eons. That’s the problem. We should stick to our basic talking points: KEEP IT IN THE GROUND. BAN FOSSIL FUELS. And by the way, the organic material that produces biogas has a desirable byproduct: solid compost, pure and ready to use as fertilizer. It’s far better to make biogas out of organic material than to burn it.”

“It seems to me,” Sara retorted, “that you should get those professors in first year earth science to do a better job. The facts seem self-evident to you, but not to most other people.”

“Good point. Yes, a better education is essential. But that will take time, a year at a minimum. We need to act over the next couple of months.”

Freddy Baez leaned forward. “I’m sorry to say this, but you’re all on the wrong track. Sure, improve education, explain the issues, argue your case. But we’ve got hot news here, very hot. That interview with Abby… it’s gone around the world. The attention of the public is at a peak I’ve rarely seen. This wave of interest must be fed, or it will break and disappear. News items are stories. What story should we tell? I ask you, Abby… what story would you recommend?”

She had been waiting for this moment. Her mind was well prepared, the words on the tip of her tongue. “I agree we have to move fast. This public attention you’re talking about… it also includes the wrong kind of attention. It alerts our enemies, and they investigate and create their own story. That’s natural. They’re threatened. This Herbert Irving you mentioned who runs Valley Fuels, he’s losing money. Large parts of this whole system will lose wealth and power, and strike back. And fossil fuels are a cultural as well as an economic problem. The self-esteem of part of our population seems to be married to fossil fuels. If we don’t get our story out there in a powerful way, we’ll be crushed.”

[lettheriverflow]

An Interview with Tristan Spinski

Jaime Molina: Please introduce yourself.

Tristan Spinski: I grew up and have lived all over the place, both here in the US and a little time abroad in SE Asia, so wherever I've lived, I've always been from "somewhere else". For the last 8 years, I've lived along the Maine coast in the northeast corner of the United States.

I had an undisciplined, passive interest in photography growing up and through college. In my mid 20s I went off to graduate school at Berkeley to work on my writing with the goal of becoming a journalist. The program encouraged students to explore other forms of storytelling, and I opted to take a documentary photography course taught by Ken Light and Mimi Chakarova. That was in 2004, and was my entry point to photography and what was to be my career and a life fully immersed in photography and visual storytelling. You never end up where you expect to, at least not in my experience. Over the years I've migrated from news-driven priorities into conversations about land use and the intersections of culture, economy and the landscape. I recently wrapped up a project on gas drilling in Pennsylvania, where I partnered with a sociologist for his ethnography about a community that has a long history of tethering its economy and cultural identity to natural resource extraction. As that chapter closes, I'm embarking on two new series — one involving endangered birds, and another being a close examination of a landscape near my home.

JM: Why is it important for you to work with conservation publications/organizations?

TS: I believe in the work they do and feel a responsibility to contribute. Once I had a foundational understanding of photography and, through assignment work, had experienced a spectrum of issues and stories, I began to unpack my motivations and inspirations. I found/find it difficult to be honest with myself and to distill what I truly want to stand for with my life and work from the pressures, distractions and seductions of the media cacophony. And there are so many realities that influence my practice and path — privilege, family, where I was raised, what I read, my friends, I could go on forever.

JM:  Is there a writer or book that influence your current practice? and why?

TS: I think every author I read influences my practice. It's a mixture of elation, that I'm absorbing a book or article and actively applying it to whatever I'm working on, and also a bit of insecurity, as I assume that I don't have a strong enough constitution of self to resist being swayed. What's that cliche about bending so you don't break?

A standout that I consider a creative "North Star" would include J.A. Baker's "The Peregrine". I've been thinking about how to describe this book to you and what it means to me for more than a day now, and everything I try to convey feels blunted and clumsy. The humility of Baker traversing the English countryside to observe and understand the falcon elevates to a synthesis of science, classical literature and meditation that makes my heart ache.

Gay Talese is also a foundational influence in my own practice. It was required reading during college, and I'm grateful for it. "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" sets a standard for a fly-on-the-wall perspective, patience and character insight, as Talese was never granted an interview but rather was able to spend time in proximity to Sinatra as he went about his business and socialized. There's a great collection of Talese's writings, "Fame and Obscurity", that I would recommend.

Ryszard Kapuscinski has become enormously influential to me in the last few years — ground level observations and personal experiences in the field working as a reporter that glide seamlessly into the stratosphere of geo-political forces. I was on assignment in Madagascar a few years ago and brought a copy of "Travels With Herodotus" with me. The writer I was working with borrowed it while I was laid flat in my tent with a boiling rash and a debilitating stomach bug. He finished it, acknowledged how it made him reconsider our own situation and project, and then I read it as I began to recover and I share my gratitude for Kapuscinski's mastery of craft. I think it might have saved the project! "Another Day of Life" is also a mind blowing, in the worst, most necessary way. I think that whatever Kapuscinski book I read most recently would be my favorite of his and would say is the most personally influential.

And to further my point about how everything influences me, I read "The Overstory" by Richard Powers last spring, as COVID shut the world down. That set me on a course with my work to think critically about trees and consciousness beyond what we (humans) are capable of seeing. And when I say it influenced me, I don't say that lightly. After I finished "The Overstory", I started researching mushroom suit burial options for when I die (someday, hopefully not soon), so that I somehow become part of a tree as my own biomass is recycled back into the earth. I feel a bit self conscious as I write this. But it's true. I told my wife my wish/intention with this, which was jarring and probably something I could have led into a bit more gracefully. I told her to read the book, and then she'd understand. On my current landscape project, I'm thinking about this book every time I'm on site.

And now I'm reading "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I don't want the book to end. It's like eating a dish and getting upset that with every bite you're closer to finishing it. To your earlier question on why it's important to me to work with conservation organizations, I'll quote Kimmerer, out of context, here: "What else can you offer the earth, which has everything? What else can you give but something of yourself?"

JM: How have you been producing work during COVID times, and how do you think it will affect your practice in the future?

TS: COVID has been both enormously disruptive, as well as clarifying. Save two or three projects, almost all of my assignment work has been COVID-related in the past year. Only one has put me in an vulnerable situation, which was early in the pandemic and wasn't intentional. I live in a sparsely-populated, rural pocket of the United States and have stayed close to home. Most assignment work has me documenting the social and economic impacts of COVID on a regional scale. And all of this has been at the request of editors at various publications, so I have no personal attachment, other than I live here and feel a commitment to my family, my neighbors, my community and my state, so I do the best job I can under the circumstances. It's necessary to communicate what's happening and I participate because it's my job, as I consider something like this to be an "all hands on deck" responsibility and it's no time to demand to be hired for passion projects.

My personal work has stalled. Completely. I just sent a year's worth of film into the lab, none of which amounts to more than random entries to my imaginary journal. This pause has made me reset, forced me to read, think, talk out ideas, and generally reconsider what I'm doing and why. I just started an examination of a nearby landscape. I wish I had found a path forward with this project earlier in the pandemic, as it's accessible and nobody is around, but I couldn't (and still can't), which is frustrating and keeps me up at night. So now I'm attempting to work my way through it. We'll see.

JM: Could you tell us why did you decide to submit that photo to LTRF?

TS: While a lot of my work is rooted in landscape, a conversation I'm interested in having revolves around the fraying relationships and growing distance between people and most other living things. In that context, this image felt appropriate.

JM:  What is your favourite bird?

TS: Ha! My favorite bird seems to change daily. I have friends who are ornithologists, and they will casually mention an insanely interesting fact about a bird that catapults that particular species to the top of my list. Or I'll read some jaw-dropping statistics and lose my mind. For instance, last autumn I got to work alongside Scott Weidensaul along the northern coast of Maine, close to where I live, as he studied migrating saw-whet owls. They are tiny and ferocious predators that fit in the palm of your hand. So I became a bit obsessed with them, and then got to reading Weidensaul's book, "Living on the Wind", about bird migrations. Early in the book he talks about Blackpoll Warblers, which use air currents to aid their transcontinental migrations from western Alaska, east across northern Canada to the Atlantic and then south to Venezuela — "an overwater trip of 2,000 miles — a passage with no rest, no refuelling, no water, during which each will have flapped its wings nearly 3 million times. 'If a Blackpoll Warbler were burning gasoline instead of its reserves of body fat, it could boast getting 720,000 miles to the gallon,' note two researchers." I had to look up images of the bird, and realize that I've seen these and never gave them a second thought. But think about how truly magnificent these little creatures are. And it's not just the spectacular that makes me love a bird. I was out walking my dogs last spring and I heard a bird chirping that sounded, to me, just like R2-D2, from Star Wars. Turned out to be a Bobolink, which also sounds like a Star Wars character. But they look like disheveled little Franciscan monks — dark bodies with a circular yellow patch of plumage on the back of their heads resembling the bald patches, which is devotional practice of tonsure. I then learned that where I walk my dogs is designated as a Bobolink breeding habitat, so it became a daily symphony of R2-D2s. And when they fly, they appear a bit slow and clumsy, almost like they've had a few beers before taking off. So maybe that's my favorite bird. I'm sure I'll read something or see something soon that turns my attention elsewhere.

JM: If you could give yourself any piece of advice right now what would it be?

TS: I'd reiterate the advice my late father, who I admire more than I can express here, gave me: Simplify.

Thank you Tristan!

___________

Tristan Spinski

Let The River Flow on Instagram

Issue 1. Available now.

[dlamp-dictator]

Who’s the Bad Guy Now?

While I haven’t finished the last episode yet, My Next life as a Villianess has been quite the fun ride. It’s funny, thoughtful, and probably has one of the best protagonist of a harem anime since The Fruit of Grisaia’s Yuuji Kazami. This is definitely definitely an anime I can recommend to anyone, which is a refreshing thing to say since the majority of anime I like tends to be either absolute fanservice garbage like Cross Ange, extremely genres like MagiPro and Granbelm, or something offensively generic and uninspired like Assassin’s Pride. 

Along with that, I can say that this anime is a refreshing take on both harem and otome tropes. Making our protagonist's obliviousness to her harem’s affection more comedic than frustrating while still giving her the charisma needed to actually get that affection in the first place. I could honestly do a whole Rambling on how well this all works together. 

But I’m not going to do that.

See, the whole ‘Villainess’ trend has been going on in Japanese manga, Korean Manhwa, and Chinese Webcomics for some time now, at least a year from my memory. I’ve been meaning to talk about some of these manga and this genre as a whole for a while now, but I’ve never really found the drive until now. So I wanted to take a bit of time to discuss a few of these stories and series in a way similar to my old Anime Updates, a general summary of the story and my overall views of each while hitting a point or two in a few paragraphs.

However, before I talk about the other manga and manhua... 

Disclaimer 

All of series I’m going to be talking about are, to my knowledge, not released or translated in the west officially. Most of these are fan translations by folks wanting to spread the respective series. However, with that said these are still technically pirated media. A lot of the translation groups have even asked to not post pictures of their translations on social media sites, specifically Instagram, as they could possibly face some form of legal action from the author. As such, I won’t be post too many pictures of what’s available save for official, untranslated art if I can.

With that said...

Let’s start with the big one. This is the main thing I wanted to talk about. What it Takes to be a Villainess or The Justice of Villainous Woman is a pretty interesting take on both Villain and Isekai tropes. The story focuses on Yu(?) Hwayoeng, a typical 23-year-old Korean woman who enjoys soap operas, racy novels, and being with her boyfriend. Well, at least until her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend and she accidentally slipped into a river and died, only to be reborn in the body of a Satiana(?) Altizer Cailon(?), a noblewoman with the reputation of a bratty villainess. Through several events, she learns she’s a Regina, a canidate for the next empress of the empire. However, Satiana’s awful reputation as a villainess competing with the saintly reputation of her opponent Irene, who is already the lover of the current prince and next emperor. With enemies at every corner and a prince she knows nothing about save for his cold demeanor toward her, Satiana, or commonly called Satie, must find away to become Empress despite her foul reputation and hostile political environment.

Now, despite Satie being a ‘villainess’, the story sets it so that she’s already condemned and somewhat hated among noble society. This isn’t a tale of how a villainess avoids a bad end, but how someone goes from an underdog brat to a proper member of high society and cares for the people she rules under. Despite the premise, this isn’t much of a romance of Satie winning over the cold prince, but Satie working both with and against the system to make policies and arrangement work in her favor with the little tools she has. Her first obstacle isn’t softening the cold prince, it’s figuring out how to get maids and secretaries to help her run affairs despite her superiors hindering her from the most basic of rights as a noblewoman. She has to use both the memories borrowed from the original Satie and her memories from her past life to help her get through the tangled web of political intrigue. 

Speaking of which.

Satie Never Forgets

Like I said, the main interest for me in this is the twist on several Villain and Isekai tropes. One of which is that Satie never forgets her time as Yu or her certain circumstance. She never forgets that she died after soon being the victim of an affair, or that she, as Yu, was a controversial figure in her university as someone that spoke out against injustice and problems despite decorum saying otherwise. The former keeps her from pursuing the prince despite his advances, the latter keeps her from letting people’s wrongdoings go unannounced, much to her own detriment at times. She never forgets that she more or less stole the body she’s in, so tries her best as Regina to do her new family right. And after about 30-ish chapters she breaks from her Villainess reputation and persona and can start handling things properly. It becomes less of an Isekai or romance story and more of a political drama with Isekai and Romance elements in it. The best parts of this series is when Satie is planning her next move through all the political wrangling, or when she uses knowledge from her previous life to improve the lives of others. Not just that she’s from a modern era, but that she was also a former babysitter for her family, or had a natural knack for flirting and acting to begin with. She smart and can think on her feet. 

However... that said, I have one glaring issue with this series.

Romance and Morality

As of me writing this we’re at about chapter 92. Within the more recent chapters they’ve finally explained things from the Prince’s prospective as to why he’s so cold and why he chose Irene as a lover. And while I find that side interesting and the story takes advantage of us seeing his side of things for future plot events, I feel like the story wants us to question who is in the right. 

This... bugs me a little.

While I don’t mind moral ambiguity in my media this series has been trying very hard to get us to root for Satie for over 90 chapters, successfully might I add. She’s used her villainess reputation when she needed to, she’s punished wrongdoers, treated well those who have deserved it, and while the prince has slowly softened his stance on her she’s still hesitant to approach him, as he already has a lover. Through the Prince’s chapters we learn his and Irene’s relationship is more political than romantic and that Irene isn’t the kind saint she makes herself out to be. However, I feel like this moral fracturing is more annoying than interesting. Granted, this is to set up some bigger drama in later chapters and the chance to see other perspectives is nice, but... eh, your mileage may very. For what it’s worth, it’s building up to some interesting twists in the next arc or two, but the mystery of who is in the right by what means feels annoying when Satie’s been walking that tightrope for the last fifty-ish chapters.

Other Critiques

Just my general critique all of the series you’ll see here, but translations have slowed down as of me typing this essay. The last one was about 2-ish months ago, at least on the site I use for this specific story. The translations can’t really get a good read on how to properly spell Satie’s name either, if the (?) didn’t clue you in. Nothing deal breaking, but an annoy tick nonetheless. 

Anyway, only the next story!

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass takes a different, if still common turn for these Villainess stories. Aria Roscente is the daughter of a prostitute that soon became a noble due to her mother marrying into nobility. She lived a lavish life and was quite arrogant as she grew up, but was slowly manipulated in her ignorance by several parties, the most egregious being her sister Mielle who pushed Aria into the role of villainess while making herself seem like a saint. And due to those machinations she was executed. With her last dying wish being for a second chance she’s granted that chance by traveling back in time to around her childhood through a magical hourglass, giving her the perfect change to lay the seeds of her revenge against all those who conned her. 

Now, time travel in these Villainess stories isn’t new, but I like this one’s take on it. Aria has a semi-manipulate time in the more recent chapters as of my writing this, and she uses them to her advantage in other to get revenge on those who wronged her. With her knowledge of future events she can make relationships of lower class individuals who will have higher stature in years to come. She can have almost prophetic knowledge of future disasters to come so she can be seen as a hero for preventing or preparing for them. And she can curb an future opponent’s advancements into high society. However... she’s stunted by thae fact that her child self won’t be taken too seriously and that Aria herself only has a passing idea of events to come, as her past arrogance made her rather flippant toward important court events.

But there’s one more issue I have with this story...

Aria is an Asshole

This might be a frequent criticism I have for a lot of future stories and series I want to cover, but to focus this on Aria for this, she is an almost cartoonishly evil character at times no real reason. Unlike like Satie who uses her bad reputation and evil persona strategically to sway opinions and weave the political landscape of the empire, Aria is an outright bastard out to tear down those that stand in her way as she manipulates things to her advantage and slowly ruins the lives of those who wronged her in the past. While we’re told this revenge is for deeds done in her past life, the people she targets are currently blameless in the new timeline. And the one that supposed ruined her life, her sister, may in fact be manipulated by other parties to see Aria’s undoing. However, Aria doesn’t care about this and proceeds to emotionally torture her younger sister throughout the story, relishing in her agony. Again, we’re told Mielle has done evil and manipulated Aria in her past life, but since we don’t see those moments it just feels like someone picking on the weak, like we’re just watching a bastard be a bastard and suppose to enjoy it. And unlike Light Yagami or Lelouch vi Britannia, her schemes and mannerisms don’t have much flamboyance or flair to them. This is just a scheming bastard ruining peoples lives, and I can’t really root for her. I’m currently at chapter 18 and so far there are translations going up to chapter 20 as of me typing this, but I’m loosing my taste for this series fast if Aria is going to just keep being an asshole without having an real opponent out to get her for it. There’s been moments of some actual opposition, but nothing concrete to say she has an opponent yet, not a tangible one at least. 

I also hear the original novel version of this story is a lot better, likely due to it taking time to explain a lot of her targets past deeds and making Aria’s evil acts seem a little more justified. It’s a lot easier to explain that in a book rather than a comic. 

It’s a little early for recommendations, but a Chinese comic The Bloody Merchant Empress and the Cold Husband's Forceful Doting is a much better version of this premise. When the wronged Empress is returned to the past as the daughter of a wealthy merchant she uses her knowledge of the future and family’s resources to better the country while also humiliating her cold, manipulative, and obsessive former husband. I’m only about 60-ish chapters in that one out the currently 90-ish that are translated as of me typing this, but it’s pretty entertaining so far and has a protagonist I can root for.

Aria... just isn’t an appealing protagonist to me, at least not yet, but I’m willing to at least get though another 5 chapters before calling judgement on it.

The last thing I wanted to cover was I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness Doesn't Mean I'm a Bad Person! This manga is about a girl named Sakura that was reincarnated as the dark magic user Claudia Letsya, the villainess of a popular novel she read. Realizing the plot and her death at the hands of the series protagonist, she works from her childhood onward to prevent her death by sowing seeds of kindness and generosity. It isn’t as simple as that however, as the world of Lacia is deeply prejudice toward those using dark magic, as well as Claudia’s own appearance since dark skin and hair are foreign to the country. Along with that, her powers are prophesied to bring ruin to the country as well. So with the cards stacked against her, Claudia must fight back every prejudice against her to prove she’s not the villain the world claims her to be, and to not die in battle as an enemy.

One it’s own this manga is pretty interesting. Claudia is already hated due to prejudice and prophecy, so she has to somehow fight against the system that already condemned her. And unlike Satie, who already had years of experience as an adult living in the adult modern world, Sakura died as a child and only has a child’s prospective on things. She’s a rather smart child, but she still doesn’t have the intelligence or status to have pull over the world. She can only do so much with the cards against in her current body and status. She has to make friends and allies fast. She eventually does this and gains a slightly better reputation than the original novel gave her, however...

The Big Twist

Spoils for chapter 6 onward, but later we large that the protagonist of this world, Amelia Logan, is also reincarnated like Claudia and knows the story and world she’s in as well. However, unlike Claudia who’s trying to prevent her death, the owner of Amelia’s body is a haughty, arrogant, and snobby person who is ignorant of our villainess’s plight and is currently trying to set Claudia’s path to follow the ‘script’ so she can kill her. 

This part I find interesting, as it give a lot more depth and a more interesting dynamic. While Claudia is trying to change her fate she has to deal with this awful, arrogant heroine that’s honestly doing more to ruin her own reputation than Claudia’s by being so pushy. And while the side cast can’t stand this arrogant light user, the society of Lacia wants Claudia as dead as Amelia does, so conspires against her. This adds another challenge onto Claudia, as the usually kind and trusting heroine is now her biggest adversary. And while that’s funny in a way, it also makes for a small problem I have with the series. That being... 

Amelia is an Asshole 

I didn’t think I’d use this criticism twice in the same Rambling, but okay. Like with Aria, Amelia is cartoonishly malicious toward Claudia. And while she’s always called out on it, she comes across more as annoying than comedic or imposing. This is probably intentional and updates are only up to chapter 9, but sometimes makes me wonder how Amelia can be so awful as a person and still keep her standing as a heroine. She tends backpedals the plot a little by being so inept of her status and assumes the fact that she’s ‘destined’ to kill Claudia means she’s free from criticism despite constantly being called out by the main cast. It’s less funny at times and more irritating that she can’t understand the story is moving in a much different direction than originally written and should act accordingly. 

This is a personal gripe however. Like I said, there’s only 9 chapters of this manga currently translated so there’s plenty of time for things to get better. This might not even be a line crossed with most readers, but it’s crossed it for me so I’m going to mention it. That’s not a deal breaker, but it is annoying to read through. 

Sadly, this manga only has 9 chapters out as of me typing this, and translations has moved to a crawl. The original novel seems have slowed as well in terms of translation speed, so this might just be a pointless inclusion on the list. Nonetheless, it’s definitely an interesting short read, if only for that 

Fuck it, I’ll make a thumbnail myself.

I’ve been meaning to find an excuse to talk about Villainess Ventures for a while, months really, and with this giant review/impressions/overview of villainess stories now’s as good a time as any.

So, if you’ve been following me for awhile you might occasionally hear me mention the youtube channel SugarPunch Design Works, a channel ran by Majikura and A Bad Idea (ABI for short). These two do a mix of parody recall episodes, animation critiques and discussions, podcasts, and anime harem reviews. The latter was something ran by Majikura with some animated bits by ABI. However, due to difficult copyright and fair use issues, Majikura has gone on record saying the harem reviews are more or less in hiatus until mentioned otherwise. In the meantime, he’s made a Webcomic on Tapas called Villainess Ventures, a comedic webcomic that treats villainy as a business and deconstructs/parodies common villain tropes. The premise is simple, protagonist Veronica Nightingale is a consultant for villains, advising them on schemes, giving them new business avenues, and so on. Like I said, there are a lot of tropes being played with here. That’s the basic synopsis, I’ve nothing more to say aside from that I’ve enjoyed reading it and I recommend you all give a look.

...

...

...

...

Look, I know I kind of railed on the last three series there for at least a paragraph each, but... well, this is a bit different. I don’t exactly feel comfortable critiquing a webcomic in the same vain I do other series, as this is a free comic that is available on a website at no cost. Technically the last three are in that same vein of being free to read, but that’s through piracy and are technically official works for purchase, just not on English sites/stores. I view webcomics in the same way I do things on fanfiction.net and fictionpress.net, I only review and critique things on request and on my own time (and yes, people on both these sites have requested reviews/critiques from me at points). At the moment I’d say the only strike I have against this series is that the artist/writer could announce their hiatuses more accurately, but that’s it. Overall this webcomic is updated weekly, one page per week, with a month or two of hiatus after every two-ish arcs. If you wanted my personal recommendations Professional Henchman and Join my Team are my favorites at the moment. The character designs are pretty good, you’ll find your favorite among the cast rather quickly, and it’s starting to get updated again as of me typing.

Like I said, this is a webcomic that’s free to read on a site that’s, as far as I’m aware, free to use and sign up to comment and subscribe to your favorite comics on the site. And feel free to subscribe to this comic and tell ‘em Allen X sent you.

And that is it for this Rambling. I still have to wrap up the Arknights essays... so there’s that. I’ll see you all a bit later. 

[bluebordercafebabel]

#MeetTheTeam: Alexander Damiano Ricci, Translation Coordinator

Alexander Damiano Ricci, 31, is the web editor of the Italian version of cafebabel.com, the European magazine. He works as well for the Brussels based podcast production agency, Bulle Media, and is a regular contributor to the European Data Journalism Network and VoxEurop. His articles have been published in Corriere della Sera - L’Economia, La Repubblica, Internazionale, Left, Poynter, Linkiesta, openDemocracy and other Italian and international outlets. Alexander was born in Germany and grew up in Italy. He lived and worked in Rome, Milan, Paris, Brussels and Turin. He is currently based in Rome.

What are your expectations for this new project?

Casting a different light on the spots that we consciously or unconsciously associate with either the migrant crisis - take Sicily or Malta - or almost geopolitical dynamics - Cyprus.

Do you have any particular connection with the islands involved in #blueborder? If not, how do you somehow feel related to them?

Over the past few years I’ve met people coming from those islands, especially from Sicily, Malta and Cyprus. I don’t have any personal connection, but friendships. Of course, every now and then it happens to spend holidays in Sicily. Other than that, I believe that these islands are somehow related to the understanding we have of our past history as a European continent, as they might have been more central in economic and political terms, during other epochs.

Youth marginalization, exclusion and fragmentation are some of the social issues that Europe is facing. How, in your opinion, are these conditions affecting young people’s dreams and lives?

Marginalization, exclusion and fragmentation are major social trends affecting the development of our generation. Nevertheless, I believe that these issues become a social problem most of all when they don’t lead to any collective action. As years go by, I realise that our generation is turning its back on collective action as a means to fight marginalization, exclusion and fragmentation. I would like to see a counter-movement in this sense.

Cafébabel has already worked with cross-border teams of journalists and photographers. How important is it to spread this way of collaboration within the European media landscape?

It is very important indeed. Most of all for countries who are, in terms of journalistic profession, historically less keen on partnering up with colleagues across borders, and, more generally, on taking care of political dynamics abroad. For sure, Italy is one of the latter.

Culture and journalism are effective in fostering solidarity and empathy - what role could #blueborder possibly play in this regard?

#blueborder could create connections between communities where we haven’t spotted them yet. As previous projects run by Babel International and Cafébabel Deutschland it might well shed a light on emotions and feelings of people who rarely make the headlines in mainstream news.

[evaaguilaus]

Eight social media trends that will make 2019

If there’s one thing that is constant about social media, it’s change.

So many things influence the way we behave on social media: technology, social changes, economy, and politics. All of them are changing at a rapid speed, so you can imagine how volatile the social media world is.

This makes predicting trends for a year ahead quite difficult. However, there are tendencies that stick around and affect the industry in a major way for a long time. For example, influencer marketing has been winning the hearts of social media marketers and the pockets of consumers for a couple of years now, and the ephemeral content, even though it has been around for a while, got a significant boost with Instagram’s investments put into the Stories feature.

Considering these points, I present to you the eight social media trends of 2019. These are the tendencies that take their roots in the current cultural zeitgeist, technological development, and social platforms’ respective strategies, and are expected to take over social media this year.

1. Social listening

Social listening is not a new thing by any means, but the way we apply social listening is changing right now. In the past years, social listening was a way to manage brand mentions and reputations for big brands like Apple or Hilton. However, two things happened that altered the social media listening industry:

Social media monitoring tools have become more evolved, with new sources of data, new features, etc being added constantly.

The tools became affordable not just for huge corporations, but for mid-sized and small businesses, local businesses, and startups as well.

How did this affect social listening strategies? Well, nowadays, the new features and data sources allow going beyond basic brand monitoring. You can use social listening for social selling, SEO, and customer care to name a few.

If I’d have to point out one area where social listening could really change the current marketing landscape, I’d go with sales. Social selling is a unique tactic that gives you an opportunity to engage with people who are seeking services and products in your industry directly.

One tool in particular even added a specific feature dedicated to social selling called Awario Leads.

For now, this tactic is extremely underused, but we can expect to see more and more brands taking on social selling this year.

2. Buying on social

Social selling is one thing, but what if you could choose and order a product without even leaving the social media app?

To be fair, it’s not a new thing, Facebook already allows users to buy products from brands’ pages in their ‘Shop‘ section. They also have a Marketplace feature launched way back in 2007 which is an alternative to Craigslist, a platform where individuals can sell or exchange mostly second-hand items.

In 2019 we will see more social media companies opening up their platforms for ecommerce. It would be the next logical step for companies which already offer brands a wide range of features for advertising, like YouTube or Instagram. In fact, one of these might be already working in that direction.

Last September, The Verge reported that Instagram might be working on an ecommerce app. According to the article, the app will let users browse collections of goods from merchants that they follow and purchase them directly within the app.

Surely, the app is not an additional feature to Instagram but rather a stand-alone entity. However, this indicates Instagram’s understanding and interest in implementing e-commerce in their product (which is only natural considering that Facebook owns Instagram).

3. Transparency

Social media data has become essential to any marketing strategy, hence social listening is on this list. However, this past year proved just how little knowledge we as a society have of the scope and impact of social media data collected on a daily basis.

Last year was marked by an array of privacy scandals, with Cambridge Analytica being the most prominent one. However, Facebook wasn’t the only one who suffered, Twitter, YouTube, and even Reddit reported at least one security breach last year.

However, let’s not diminish Facebook’s role in this regard, they seemed to have one PR nightmare after another. This probably prompted Mark Zuckerberg to make a special New Year’s resolution for 2019 to organize a series of public discussions dedicated to how Facebook influences society.

That will be only one of the initiatives dedicated to bringing more transparency into the world of social media companies. Data is one of the most important resources in social media marketing, and ethical collection, as well as unbiased evaluation of it, will be a major priority for companies this year.

Our century is marked by brands developing personalities for themselves and building relationships with their audiences. According to this study by Sprout Social, millennials are expecting more transparency from brands than politicians or friends and family. Gaining the trust of the audience will become the focus of social media platforms’ strategies.

4. Live streaming

Powered by social media algorithms, pivoting to video content has been a trend for a while now. This year, however, live streaming is the new black.

Social streaming favors in-the-moment content, another trend that has been taking over social media for a while with Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and, most recently, Facebook stories. According to this Facebook report, daily watch time for Facebook live broadcasts grew four times over the course of a year.

You can use live streaming to present a new product, change the narrative during a PR crisis, or introduce a collaboration with an influencer.

What makes live streaming so special is the ability to create space for an actual dialogue with your customer in real time. Your viewers feel like they are in the middle of a natural conversation, and you’re speaking directly to them. It wins over highly produced video content because of its authenticity, the thing every marketer is trying to accomplish.

5. Private communities

2018 saw a trend of communication migrating to private channels.

More and more interactions occur in Facebook groups and private communities rather than on public pages, which is favored both by algorithms and people (unless these people are social media managers). Moreover, social media platforms keep adding new features to simplify the curation of private groups on top of integrating messaging features in their apps.

On Instagram, turning your growing Instagram account private creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency encourages people to follow, as described in this article by the Atlantic. Private groups and accounts make you feel like a part of an exclusive community, and who doesn’t want that?

Consider creating a private community for your brand, for example, a group on Facebook or LinkedIn. This will give your users an opportunity to not just communicate with you but also with each other, which contributes to building a strong community and encouraging brand advocacy.

6. Messaging

The most private communication channel is, of course, direct messaging. And for the last few years, brands have been engaging with customers through DMs and personal messages on social.

For now, brands are mostly using messaging apps and DMs for customer service purposes. But there’s untapped potential to create personalized, automated communication that’s even more effective than email.

This year, messaging will become a meaningful part of every social media strategy. Moreover, brands will finally embrace messenger automation. A study conducted by Relay revealed that out of 1000 trending B2B companies on Crunchbase, only 0.5 percent of the companies had a chatbot.

Chatbots could make messenger marketing the new email marketing, the open rate for messages is much higher than for emails, and messaging itself is seen as a more casual and personal way of communication.

Chatbots aren’t perfect yet, and people still prefer to converse with a human. However, as chatbots become more sophisticated and use more natural language, they will become necessary. You need to figure out which part of your marketing strategy could benefit from them.

Integrating eCommerce functions could also be beneficial for messaging apps. This is not the new idea if we remember WeChat, but it hasn’t been explored yet in the Western part of the world.

7. Personalization

Chatbots and messaging can also be a part of a comprehensive personalization strategy. 2019 will be the year when personalization powered by AI takes over marketing.

Considering the vast amount of personal information currently available to social media companies, it has become extremely easy to obtain insights into all kinds of information about your customers. Content consumed, purchase history, clicked links, social media interactions, and even personal messages. All this and more can be used to create a laser-targeted marketing campaign just for you.

However, some consumers may feel uncomfortable with how personalization is currently implemented in marketing. Brands need to find the fine line between being helpful and outright creepy.

One way to do this would be combining personalization and other types of marketing: influencer marketing, personalizing your messaging communication (beyond using first names), and so on. Take an example from Airbnb, which uses information about your past and upcoming trips to craft personalized traveling recommendations.

8. Augmented reality (AR)

AR can be used in a plethora of ways, from creating filters dedicated to certain events to actually implementing your product in videos or photos to let customers try it on.

At its F8 developer conference last year, Facebook announced that it was testing AR ads. In your timeline, they look like ordinary Facebook Ads but with a ‘Tap to try it on’ button that lets you try products on virtually with the help of camera filters.

AR could be the solution for those who don’t like online shopping and prefer to test a product before buying. If social media platforms successfully implement this technology on a wide scale first, they will become an even more attractive platform for advertising compared to digital space.

What you need to do in 2019

As you can see, none of these trends are coming at you completely out of the blue, most of them are a logical development of social media platforms’ strategies or the way ordinary users behave on social media.

So this year, it’s time to become an early adopter and try something new, be it a social listening tool or a messenger bot. In 2019, make sure you:

Collect and analyze social media data to guide your marketing decisions

Apply new technology to your social media strategy

Stay authentic and personal

You will undoubtedly see a boost in your social media ROI.

Got any unique social media strategies chalked out for 2019? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Aleh is the Founder and CMO at SEO PowerSuite and Awario. He can be found on Twitter @ab80.

The post Eight social media trends that will make 2019 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/03/01/eight-social-media-trends-that-will-make-2019/

[catherinerabus]

Environmental America: It’s in Our Roots

        It can be universally agreed that the United States was the birth place of modern democracy. This is a fact which every American grew up learning. However, what we usually do no dwell on in our grade school education is the fact that the United States was also the birth place of modern environmentalism. One could easily assume that the United States was never a nation which cared about its natural world’s wellbeing because of our nation’s current stance on the matter. Despite America’s currently bleak situation, our country has a rich history of environmentalism.

        This American tradition began formally with President Theodore Roosevelt, who is regarded as the “Conservation President”. The conservation movement which he played a huge role in was the precursor to the modern environmentalist movement. Through his establishment of the United States Forest Service, President Roosevelt assured the protection of approximately 230 million acres of public land (National Park Service). John Muir is another prominent figure in American environmentalism. An avid outdoorsman, like President Roosevelt, Muir founded the Sierra Club. This environmentalist organization continues to thrive today. Additionally, our “second national anthem” as some consider it, “God Bless America/ land that I love” is a song which expresses national love and appreciation for America’s nature and its intrinsic and ascetic value. Finally, Presidents Nixon and Carter laid down some of the strongest conservation and environmental policy of any nation in the world during their terms. Through an executive order, President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency which would later pass the Clean Air Act in 1972 (Environmental Central). During his State of the Union address in 1970, Nixon briefed Congress on his plans to dedicate $10 billion to a national clean water program and later passed the Clean Water Act (Environmental Central). He also passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, another landmark environmental policy (Environmental Central). During his time as president, Carter strengthened the role of the EPA by increasing its funding (On the Issues) He also created a superfund to clean up toxic waste sites (On the Issues). Although these presidents had considerably contrasting political views, they both were dedicated to making America’s landscape clean and beautiful.

        Unfortunately, in 2019 there is a total shift away from our nation’s environmentalist history. Today we have two extremely polarized political parties that are not at all united on the front of environmentalism.  As we saw with the examples of Presidents Nixon and Carter, environmental concern was not always a dividing issue between Democrats and Republicans. Environmentalism was not a matter of liberalism or conservativism at that time- it was common sense. Sadly, political and, consequentially, public unity was lost when corporate America began involving itself in politics more than ever before. Certain politicians were given financial support by the gas and oil industries if they agreed to defend and endorse these unsustainable businesses. What resulted was republican politicians such as President Regan defunding and rolling back environmental policy which would have damaged the continued success of these businesses. This scheme was shrouded by lies that environmental concerns actually hurt American jobs and the GDP. Fueled in part by the economic boom of the Regan administration, by the 1990s America had become completely divided in their concern and even “belief” of climate change and the protection of our natural world. Environmentalism, as we see today, became a splitting issue between Democrats and Republicans. This matter became even controversial for some Democrats. For example, Al Gore, who was previously considered a champion of modern day environmentalism, downplayed his environmental stance when he ran in 2000 because he feared it would hurt his campaign. Today, we have a president who will not even address the ever pressing issue of climate change in his State of the Union address.

        Keeping the current state of our nation in mind, where do we as environmentalists stand in this period of hyper-consumption and industry? The place we call home is a nation that is ultra-industrialized and my generation in particular has become expectant of a certain way of life that we grew up accustomed to. My generation matured during the peak of throw-away culture and it has become a part of our daily routines. How will we break this cycle of waste as we look towards the future? Older individuals are even more set in their ways. During my 21 years on earth, I have learned that humans don’t like change. So, how are we going to drastically alter the lifestyles of millions of Americans, about a third of whom don’t even accept climate change as a reality?

        An answer to these difficult questions may be a resurgence of education on our nation’s environmentalist history. I believe many people have forgotten that caring for our earth is not a characteristically political issue at its core. It is really about maintaining our literal habitats as humans, whether it be for appreciation of its beauty, its ability to provide for us what we need or any of the other numerous reasons for embracing environmental protection. Americans need to be reminded that we are only able to survive because of nature’s life giving force. In my next blog post, I plan to discuss how environmental education is the key to our future success as a nation.

        I sometimes (okay fine maybe it’s a bit more than sometimes) get pretty depressed thinking about our planet’s current situation. “What will happen if people don’t wake up, already?” I ask myself. However, even in this time of abject environmental degradation, I try to think back to a time when we did respect and consider our environment sacred and valuable beyond its economic worth. I have hope that we can return to this way of life in the future. Environmentalism is in our natural history as human beings even though we have been destroying it by focusing on making a profit rather than sustaining our home. I believe that we can use history to reshape the worldview of many. It is good to sometimes take a step back and remember that the way it is today is not how it has always been and it is not the way it will always be. It is up to us as environmental advocates to give our planet the voice that many are not hearing or even stifling. Earth has been telling us for years that we are using and abusing it, but many individuals and world leaders have not been listening. This generation must halt our society’s anthropocentric world view. This idea teaches that humans are the center of the environment, rather than a single member of. Americans need to learn from our history the legitimacy of environmentalism and beyond this, the falsehood of the anthropocentric world view. With some effort, I believe that we can reshape our future by learning from our past.  

Word Count: 1189

                                                     Works Cited

“Lost in Watergate's Wake: Nixon's Green Legacy.” Climate Central, 8 Aug. 2012, www.climatecentral.org/blogs/richard-nixon-the-environmentalist-resigned-38-years-ago-today-14776.

“Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 16 Nov. 2017, www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm.

“Jimmy Carter on Environment .” On the Issues , 12 Sept. 2018, www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Jimmy_Carter_Environment.htm.